


Moment of Truth

by lilycalloway



Category: Like Us Series - Krista Ritchie & Becca Ritchie
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-01
Updated: 2018-06-01
Packaged: 2019-05-17 01:20:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14822516
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilycalloway/pseuds/lilycalloway
Summary: Sulli has kept her relationship with Akara a secret from her parents, afraid of how they'll react. One morning at the lake house, the truth comes out.





	Moment of Truth

**Author's Note:**

> disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters. They belong to Krista and Becca Ritchie.

I sit outside the lake house early in the morning, sitting in one of the chairs and watching the sunrise. It's quiet, no one really awake yet. Perfect time for a swim.

The door opens a couple feet behind me and although I already know who's walking through it, I turn to look anyway.

"Morning, Sul." Akara says to me, settling into the chair next to me and laying his towel across the back.

"Morning, Kits." I smile at him.

You ready?"

"Yeah." I get up from my chair and slip off my shorts. I look excitedly toward him. "Race you?"

"You're on."

I put one foot behind me, preparing to take off running. He does the same.

"One, two, three!" I speed towards the dock, sensing him close behind me. He catches up quickly and we both jump in the water at the same time, making a huge splash. 

When we resurface, I look at him and he's laughing. It’s contagious, and I start laughing too. Who else would do this with me at sunrise?

"You're fucking crazy, you know that?" he smiles.

"Yeah," I say, moving closer and wrapping my arms around his neck. "but you love it."

"That, I do." His hands circle around my back. If you had told me at sixteen that my new bodyguard would eventually become my boyfriend, I would've told you that I didn't fucking believe you. But I'm so happy with the way things have turned out. We look into each other's eyes deeply and I reach up to kiss him. He kisses me back softly, pulling me closer. The water laps gently around us, the rising sun brightening the sky and warming us. He deepens the kiss and lifts me in his arms. I straddle his hips and my hands move to grip his hair. We break apart for air and I glance back at the lake house. I don't see anyone walking around inside, but it's only a matter of time before someone shows up.

Akara follows my gaze. "We're gonna have to tell them eventually."

I look back at him and place my hands on his shoulders. "I know, I'm just scared about telling my dad. He'll fucking flip." If I wasn't so terrified, I probably would've told them already. But I'm still thinking of a good way to break it to them.

"We'll figure something out, okay? I promise."

I nod. He lets go of me and we swim around calmly for a while then start competing against each other. I end up winning most of the races. At the end, our last one was so close it's hard to tell who won. We're arguing about it on the way back inside for breakfast.

"It was totally me," I say. "you were a split second off."

"I touched the dock first, you were a split second off."

I grin. "Whatever. Let's just call a truce and say I won."

He laughs. "Fine, you won, Sul. You're basically a mermaid anyway."

"Fuck yeah I am."

We stop at the chairs we sat in earlier, grab our towels and dry off. I put my shorts back on and carry my towel inside. Akara walks in right behind me. Immediately, I hear my mom's voice. 

"Ryke, don't do this!" she pleads.

I look at Akara, my smile fading and a nervous jolt of energy going through me. He worriedly looks in the direction of her voice. I watch the hallway where it's coming from too, but no one appears and it goes quiet. It's rare that I ever hear my mom sound like that. Something's wrong. I glance at him again. He looks at me like I don't fucking know. I'm about to go check on them when footsteps sound.

Next thing I know, my dad is walking quickly towards us, anger radiating from him. I've seen my dad angry plenty of times, but not like this.

Fuck, he knows.

My mom runs after him, looking distressed. 

He heads straight for Akara.

And punches him in the face.

I gasp loudly, shouting, "Akara!"

He glances at me quickly, before bracing himself for another hit. "It's fine, Sul. I deserve it." That fucking breaks my heart. He really thinks this, otherwise he would've dodged my dad's first punch. But he doesn't deserve this. Not at all.

"Dad, no! Stop!" I yell.

He doesn't listen.

"Ryke!" my mom shouts.

Nothing.

She comes over to me and holds me tightly. I grab onto her arm.

"WHAT THE FUCK do you think you're doing with her?!”

Akara doesn't get the chance to respond, my dad throws another punch. "We hired you to protect her, not to fucking sleep with her!" he snaps. Another hit.

Tears are streaming down my face.

"Dad, STOP!" I scream. I want to do something more to try and stop him but my mom holds me securely, not wanting me to get in the middle of it.

Blood is spilling from Akara's nose now, and he wipes it away with the back of his hand.

My dad goes for another punch. I can't take this anymore.

"DAD, PLEASE! I LOVE HIM!”

My dad freezes, fist inches from Akara's face, then drops it. Both of them are breathing heavily. They look toward me and I wipe away tears, sniffling.

My mom lets go of me, and I'm scared to see her reaction. The silence in the room is tense, everybody staring at me.

My dad breaks it. "You fucking love him, Sulli?”

I nod, more tears falling. "Yeah, I do." my voice comes out quiet. I look at Akara and smile sadly at him. His nose is still bleeding, his lip is busted and his cheekbone is a brutal shade of red. He gives me his own sad smile in return.

My dad looks from me to him. "Do you fucking love her, too?" His voice is rough. Akara doesn't even look at him, still keeps my gaze as he says, “Yeah."

My dad looks from him to me, and then back again. He runs a hand through his hair and then walks outside, shutting the door behind him and walking to the lake.

I can't believe that just fucking happened. He must've seen us outside. I mean, at least he knows now and we don't have to hide it anymore, but this was definitely not how I pictured him finding out.

It becomes silent again, but a moment later the front door opens and we all turn our head towards it.

In walks Winona. She points a thumb behind her, gesturing towards outside. "Hey Mom, I just saw the bird you were talking about—"

She stops cold, registering the atmosphere in the room. She looks at Akara, beaten up and bloody, then at me, my eyes red and face tear streaked, and finally at our mom, whose reaction I'm just now seeing.

She's sad, but not angry.

"What happened?" Nona asks, slowly coming forward.

"Your dad found out about me and Sulli." Akara tells her.

Her eyes widen. "Oh my god, he did that to you?”

He nods.

"Nona, why don't we give them some alone time?" my mom says.

She looks between me and him and then to our mom. “Okay."

When they leave, I walk up to him. "I'm so, so fucking sorry.”

"I deserved it. I broke the rules.”

"You didn't fucking deserve it, I promise." I move closer to him and cup his face with one hand, my thumb brushing his reddened cheekbone. He sees the concerned look on my face and says, "I'll be fine.”

"I'll get you some ice." I drop my hand, and look outside at my dad. "This is exactly what I was afraid of." 

He looks outside too, and we briefly watch my dad walking around the outer edge of the lake. I turn away and go to the kitchen to grab the ice. Today started out so well, and went downhill really quickly.

After breakfast, I hang out in my room, laying in bed and thinking everything over. A knock on the door interrupts my thoughts. 

"It's me, Nona.”

"Come in, squirt.”

She walks in, closing the door behind her. She climbs on the bed and lays next to me. "So you gotta tell me how this all happened.”

”Last night, I told Akara that I wanted to go for an early morning swim today. So we woke up early and got in the lake. I figured we were in the clear since everybody else was still asleep, so we started kissing. Everything was fine until we came back inside and heard Mom begging Dad not to do something. And before I knew it, Dad found us and started punching Akara and yelling at him. Mom and I screamed at him to stop, but he didn't listen. It was only when I said I loved Akara that he stopped." A couple tears roll down my face, remembering it.

Her eyes widen, taking this all in. “Whoa."

I nod. "It all happened so fast. I'm worried about what's gonna happen now." They wouldn't fire him, would they? No, not after Maximoff and Jane both started dating their bodyguards. It wouldn't be fair.

"Everything's gonna be okay, Sulli." She moves closer and hugs me tightly.

When we pull away, she says, "Dad can't hate him forever. After everything he's done for this family? There's no way.”

She's got a point. “True."

We lay there for a while longer, under the covers and just talking. It's nice.

That night at dinner, Akara offers to cook like he used to, but is shot down by my dad. Hurt flickers across his face and my mom gives him a sympathetic smile. I squeeze his hand. When my mom walks to the kitchen to help my dad, I tell him, "It'll just take some fucking time.”

"How long?”

"I don't know.”

Dinner is uncomfortably quiet, no one really saying anything. I hate it. I just want everything to be okay again. But that won't be for a while. It drags on, and when we finish, Dad leaves quickly.

Seeing my expression, Mom comes up to me and tells me, "He'll come around.”

I nod. "Are you mad?”

"I'm a little disappointed, but I can't say I didn't see this coming.”

I lift my eyebrows in surprise. “Really?"

"Yeah, I've seen the way you two are together." she smiles.

I smile back.

Akara walks toward us. "I'm sorry, Daisy.”

"It's okay, you're the only one I trust with her." she glances between us, and then back at him. "I know you'll take good care of her, you already do.”

He smiles, wrapping an arm around my shoulders and looking down at me. "I'd do anything for her."

++++

Days pass and we go back home. Dad and I don't really speak much. He doesn't speak to Akara at all. He even fucking uninvited him from our family dinners. I've been kind of down these past few days, hating the tension between me, my dad and Akara. I don't want this to cause a big strain among us. But I'm giving my dad time to cool down and sort out his thoughts.

I walk out of my room to grab a drink, when I hear voices. I stop where I am, hiding by the corner of the wall.

"You've gotta forgive him eventually, Ryke. You can't just keep avoiding him. And you see what this is doing to Sulli.”

There's a pause before he says, "I don't know, Dais. I don't think I can fucking do that yet.”

"I know this is hard for you to accept, but just remember all that he's done for us before this. He's never been anything but loyal and trustworthy. SFO wouldn't be what it is without him.”

He sighs.

They don't say anything else.

I walk back to my room, deciding to forget the drink. Instead, I text Beckett:

_fries date?_

He texts back a few minutes later, saying yes and we decide to meet up in an hour.

When it's time to leave, Akara tells me, "I'm gonna let your dad know, I'll be right back." I give him a look, a little worried about this interaction, but he places a hand on my shoulder and says, "It'll be fine." he smiles reassuringly.

He heads outside to where my dad leans against the deck railing, looking out at the backyard.

I sit at the kitchen counter, pretending to look at my phone while I listen.

"Sulli and I are heading out, she's meeting Beckett for lunch.”

I don't hear him say anything in response. Then, as I hear Akara about to come back inside, "I'm fucking sorry.”

Akara stops and walks back toward my dad. "For what?”

"Treating you like shit. You're fucking family, I shouldn't have reacted like that.”

"It's fine—”

"IT'S NOT FUCKING FINE!" my dad yells. "All you've ever done was fucking protect her, and I just beat you up for loving her. I'm an asshole.”

"I get why you reacted the way you did. You were worried I was taking advantage of her. I promise you I wasn't. This was her decision.”

There's a pause. "As long as she's fucking happy. That's what matters." Another beat of silence and then he asks, "Can you bring her out here?”

“Sure."

The door opens and I meet his eyes. "Your dad wants you out here.”

I get up and slip my phone in my pocket, walking out onto the deck. Akara stands next to me.

"Look you guys, I may not be 100% on board with this yet," He looks to Akara, "You did break the contract," then to me, "but if this is what you really fucking want Sulli, then your happiness comes first to me.”

"It's what I want.”

Akara looks at me, his lips rising in a small smile. He grabs my hand, holding it in his and squeezes it. I squeeze his in return, grinning at him.

"Now go, you don't wanna keep Beckett waiting." my dad says to us.

I release Akara's hand and step forward to hug him. "Thanks Dad.”

We pull apart and he says, "Of course.”

With that, Akara and I go back inside and head for the front entrance.

My mom crosses our path. "Have fun at lunch! Tell Beckett and Donnelly I say hi.”

"Will do!" I tell her.

She continues on her way, leaving me and Akara alone by the front door.

"I'm glad they finally know." he says to me.

"Me too. It could've gone better, though." I look at the purplish bruise that's formed on his cheekbone.

”Definitely. But I would endure it over and over if it meant we got to be together.”

I smile. "I love you, Kits.”

"I love you too, Sul." He pulls me close and presses his lips against mine.


End file.
